You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under chapter
552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 125130

The City of Lubbock (the "city") received a request for "any accomadations [sic] or
disciplinary actions given to Lubbock Police Officer Tracy Taylor." You claim that the
requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.103 of the Government
Code and you submit the requested information to this office. We have considered the
exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

You assert that section 552.103 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure the
requested information. Section 552.103(a) of the Government Code reads as follows:

(a) Information is excepted from [required public disclosure] if it is
information:

(1) relating to litigation of a civil or criminal nature or settlement
negotiations, to which the state or a political subdivision is or may be a party
or to which an officer or employee of the state or a political subdivision, as
a consequence of the person's office or employment, is or may be a party; and

(2) that the attorney general or the attorney of the political subdivision has
determined should be withheld from public inspection.

A governmental body has the burden of providing relevant facts and documents to show the
applicability of an exception in a particular situation. The test for establishing that section
552.103(a) applies is a two-prong showing that (1) litigation is pending or reasonably
anticipated, and (2) the information at issue is related to that litigation. University of Tex.
Law Sch. v. Texas Legal Found., 958 S.W.2d 479 (Tex. App.--Austin, 1997, no pet.); Heard
v. Houston Post Co., 684 S.W.2d 210 (Tex. App.--Houston [1st Dist.] 1984, writ ref'd n.r.e.);
Open Records Decision No. 588 (1991). In Open Records Decision No. 638 (1996), this
office said that a governmental body may show that litigation is reasonably anticipated when
it receives a claim letter that it represents to be in compliance with the Texas Tort Claims Act
(the "TTCA"), Chapter 101 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The city has received
a notice of claim and, you represent that the notice is in compliance with the TTCA. You
have made the requisite showing that the requested information relates to reasonably
anticipated litigation for purposes of section 552.103(a). The requested records therefore
may be withheld from public disclosure.

We note that if the opposing party in the anticipated litigation has seen or had access to any
of the information in these records, there is no section 552.103(a) interest in withholding that
information from the requestor. Open Records Decision Nos. 349 (1982), 320 (1982). In
addition, the applicability of section 552.103(a) ends once the litigation concludes. Attorney
General Opinion MW-575 (1982); Open Records Decision No. 350 (1982). However, if
the records contain information that is confidential by law, you must not release such
information even at the conclusion of the litigation. Gov't Code §§ 552.101, .352.

We are resolving this matter with an informal letter ruling rather than with a published open
records decision. This ruling is limited to the particular records at issue under the facts
presented to us in this request and should not be relied upon as a previous determination
regarding any other records. If you have questions about this ruling, please contact our
office.